Day 6 -

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Today, we are being “postcard travelers”. This means that we saw a postcard yesterday, loved what we saw, bought the card, and headed out to see it. The postcard we bought yesterday was of the beach of Voidkilia. It is about 12 kilometers north of Pylos. What a beautiful site! The sand is beautiful. The bay is almost like a swimming pool, unless you get close to the entrance where the water flows in from the ocean. Then, you just enjoy the rocking of the water while floating on your neon pink inflatable. We found a perfect spot in the shade to set up camp right next to a rock cliff. We had a quick dip in the water before eating the pastries we bought at a local market on the way to the beach….mmm. Daniel had a good time snorkeling around the rock cliff, checking out the fish in the eel grass. Rachel and I hung out on the inflatables. It is a hard life but someone’s got to do these things. Rachel read a bit while Daniel and I checked out the west side of the bay. It is known as a good birdwatching site. We found a bird blind, but no birds. After lounging around for a few hours, we decided to head south to Metheni to see the old citadel. While we were driving out of the parking lot, Rachel said “Uncle Dan, there’s a bird”. Rachel says this frequently and it is always a very common bird, though Daniel still encourages her to point them out. His graciousness has paid off. Another life bird for the trip! It is a Crested Lark. We are all thrilled. Rachel is the mighty hunter who spotted the bird. Daniel gets to add the bird to his list. I just enjoyed watching their interaction.

The sun was setting so the light was great for pictures of the citadal in Metheni. It is quite a large place and we don’t have the energy at the end of the day to explore it in its entirety. After our exploration, we talk about dinner. Though we would loved to have eaten at a small restaurant in Metheni, we decide to head back to Kalo Nero so that Daniel won’t have to drive home in the dark on a Saturday night. Greek driving is nerve-wrecking enough as it is. Drunk Greek driving would be too much. Actually, I have read and seen that Greeks tend to drink often, but of little quantity. Being drunk in public is supposed to be quite shameful. We didn’t see any drunk people at the dance club the previous night so maybe drunks on the road shouldn’t be much of a worry. Though, since Greeks seem like they drive drunk all the time, it doesn’t really matter in the end.

We drive home a different way than our way south. When driving south from Kyprissia, the road signs to Pylos takes you inland quit a ways through Gargaliani and Hora (Chora). It took us by Nestor’s castle, which we enjoyed. However, we decided to gamble and head back along the coast, hoping for less windy roads and a quicker ride home. It turned out to be a great decision! We got back to Kalo Nero in about an hour. It would have taken us 1 ½ -2 hours the other way I think.

We decided we were ready for another Greek dinner out instead of eating in again. Rachel and I took showers while Daniel took a dip in the pool to freshen up. The previous night, Rachel had noticed a cute waiter at a restaurant next to the bar. There were not other options but eating at that particular restaurant. The cute boy was still there so off we went to find a table. Even though we waited as late as possible, there was only one other group at 9:30pm in the restaurant. Daniel thought maybe we had picked a dud of a restaurant due to Rachel’s criteria. Lo and behold, by 10:30pm the restaurant was packed with families. The waitress couldn’t speak any English. They had a large menu written in Greek and English, so we just pointed. That didn’t work very well since they didn’t seem to have any of the main dishes we wanted. Instead, the waitress suggested three different dishes that didn’t seem to have English translations by them on the menu. She spent some time explain what they were, though it didn’t help since it was all in Greek. We gambled and some things were good and some things weren’t, but we could tell all the food was fresh and well made. The Greek waiter really worked up a sweat with the tables full and Rachel appreciated his new glow (which Daniel was happy to point out to her). I also helped Rachel by taking a picture of her while the waiter served the next table behind her. Now see has the documentation of the cute Greek boys her friends all asked her to catalog.

I want to take a few minutes to talk about the town square energy. There are probably 8 restaurants and bars on the outsides of this 4 block square sized courtyard. They are all packed with families and friends. In the middle of the square the kids all gather. They are 2-14 year old or so. They seem as happy to escape the restaurant table as their parents are to see them leave. There are about 50 kids running, laughing, riding bikes, and just having a good time. The parents let them run around with little guidance. The kids certainly don’t go looking for help, except maybe when their 2 year old sister is following them around and they appeal to their parents to please let them run and play without this tag along. The tag along continues to tag along and all goes back to the way it was. Kids ride bikes around the outside of the square, right through the restaurants. Kids play tag in and out of restaurants and nobody seems to even notice. It is really quite a beautiful sight. The Greeks do enjoy themselves and each other.

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